Hist 4339

The “Scramble for Africa”

1884-85: Berlin West Africa Conference

▪ Meeting of European powers, other observers

▪ Negotiation over how to divide West Africa

▪ European-drawn boundaries: arbitrary or not?

            —Prescott, Nugent: European attempts

            to take existing institutions into account,

            make adjustments to ease impact

            —but disruptions remained

The Scramble for Africa

▪ Berlin Conference as one stage in larger process

▪ By WWI, almost entire continent claimed

by various European powers

▪ Height of European influence in world affairs

            —but anti-colonial trend already emerging

Imperial Motivations

▪ German “sonderweg” [peculiar path]:

            —colonialism as distraction

            from internal problems

▪ French ideal of “overseas France”                 

            —ambitions to control all of North Africa

▪ British focus on securing route to India

—also private hopes for African future

(e.g. Rhodes’s Cape-to-Cairo railway)